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January 3rd, 2009
A Strange year
60 seals were treated by the Sanctuary in 2008, making it the first time for many years that numbers have dropped. Grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) came down from 46 to 28 ~ mainly because the problem of very high tides washing away new born pups did not repeat itself this year. Seals getting entangled in [...]
July 28th, 2008
Animal Rescue reviews
52 animals were admitted in the first 5 months of 2008. Thankfully, seal arrivals fell slightly when compared with the same period as last year; 16 of the 22 cared for were grey seals (Haliochoerus grypus) and 6 were common seals (Phoca vitulina). 2 of the grey seals were badly tangled in netting and one [...]
Birds of Prey
Most of the birds in this section could not be returned to the wild because of their injuries. Kestrels are regular traffic casualties because they like to hunt over roadside verges.
Barn owls
Barn owls are also frequent road accident victims. Fortunately, most of those that survive the initial collision do recover and can then be released. However, barn owls are very long lived so even with only an occasional disabled bird, after 30 years of caring for them, we now have a large number needing sanctuary here. Tawny owls are much more likely to hunt amongst trees than along roads so even though they outnumber barn owls in Britain by 10:1 we only get the occasional road casualty.Tawny owl
Tawny owls nestlings are a different matter. Their habit of leaving the nest before they can fly would not normally matter in dense woodland but in this world full of dogs, cats and very little cover, they are frequently found and brought to us for care. Despite all the hazards it is still probably best to leave any young bird alone and in the case of tawny owls, if you decide to intervene, there is the added risk of being attacked by an angry parent.
Releasing wild birds - Our aim is to release as close to where they were originally found as possible. Most are ringed so that if found again we could get some idea of whether we have been successful. One return was a hand-reared tawny owl. Three years after its release it was found only half a mile away but with a broken wing. It was sad about the injury but at least we knew that it had been capable of surviving in the wild. In another case two barn owls found locally were released close by. They then set up home in our gift shop roof and have reared chicks there regularly since 1995.
Eagle Owls
have been absent from Britain for some time now so it was really good news to hear that a pair has been breeding in Yorkshire. The species is likely to have lived here for most of the previous 2 million years.
